This is a retelling of David Copperfield but, unless you’re looking for it, you’d never realize. The sense of place is strong here. SW Virginia and adjacent parts of Appalachia is a perpetual background character. The sense of desperation and desolation could only take place here.
The lacking education, no job opportunities, and the beginning of the opioid crisis all contribute to the bleakness. Kingsolver doesn’t skimp on the natural beauty of the place either.
The writing is phenomenal. Kingsolver has so many little moments where she captures so much while saying so little. Behold:
“…that she called a drug rep, which I figured must not be the same as a dealer…”
“At the time, I thought my life couldn’t get any worse. Here’s some advice: Don’t ever think that.”
“Sometimes a good day lasts all of about ten seconds.”
“It hit me pretty hard, how there’s no kind of sad in this world that will stop it turning. People will keep on wanting what they want, and you’re on your own.”
“The first to fall in any war are forgotten. No love gets lost over one person’s reckless mistake. Only after it’s a mountain of bodies bagged do we think to raise a flag and call the mistake by a different name, because one downfall times a thousand has got to mean something. It needs its own brand, some point to all the sacrifice.”
“Sunday school stories are just another type of superhero comic. Counting on Jesus to save the day is no more real then sending up the Batman signal.”
“I wanted to go home. Which was nowhere, but it’s a feeling you keep having, even after there’s no place anymore.”
“Some call that addiction. Some say love. Fine line.”
“Certain pitiful souls around here see whiteness as their last asset that hasn’t been totaled or repossessed.”
“A fallen hero shatters into more short pieces, then you’d believe.”
“This was a business of outrunning ghosts, and there was no end to my dead.”
This book will break your heart but it will be worth it. 5/5
JesseJaneReads 